In a crunch Group 2 match of the Super Eights in ICC World T20, India will take on their neighbours Pakistan. There is no dull moment when these two sides are on the field and Sunday’s contest should be no different.
This is the second match that the two teams will be playing in the World Cup in Sri Lanka, first being the warm-up match where Pakistan defeated India in a close fought contest. The tournament is organised in such manner that these two most followed teams meet each other more than any other teams, reason being the attention India-Pakistan contest draws.
Coming to today’s match, Pakistan will surely be feeling more confident going into the match compared to the Indians. India after regaistering a convincing victory over England in the league match, were dominated by Australians in their first Super Eight match.
Pakistan, on the other hand, won a loosing battle against tournament favorites South Africans. Winning a close match always helps and Pakistan would have gained a lot of confidence from that victory.
Indian captain MS Dhoni has a lot of problems to worry about ahead of this match. He played five bowlers against Australia and together his five bowlers could pick only one wicket in the entire innings. To fit in the fifth bowler, he had to drop Virender Sehwag, which according to some of the cricket pundits was a horrendous decision.
Secondly, even if Sehwag is not picked, Dhoni has to decide whether Irfan Pathan is a right choice on top of the order. Pathan in the last match consumed a lot of deliveries and which affected India’s total. Dhoni has said that he does not want much change in the batting order, but there seems to be very little logic behind opening the innings with Pathan when a main batsmen is not getting enough deliveries to face.
Indian team will also need to double-check their approach when they are batting. It looks that the team is setting a low target and the emphasis is on saving wickets, this has affected the team's total in the matches against Afghanistan and Australia.
There might be some changes in the bowling department as well. It is a possibility that the team management will drop Piyush Chawla for this match. Pakistan players play spin quite well and having an extra spinner might not be very effective against them.
Pakistan have won all three matches but they will know that they have not been at their best. Pakistan bowlers did wonderfully well against the South Africans, but the batsmen made a mess of the target.
In earlier matches, it was Pakistan’s batting that won them the matches, they have been a bit scratchy on the field as well. Mohammed Hafeez will be hoping that this time around both his batsmen and his bowlers come to the party because if they do than things will get very difficult for India.
The pitch at Premdasa will favor spinners and the captain who will win the toss will most likely elect to bat first.
India Squad:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Ashok Dinda, Rohit Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Manoj Tiwary.
Pakistan Squad:
Mohammad Hafeez, Abdul Razzaq, Asad Shafiq, Imran Nazir, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Sami, Nasir Jamshed, Raza Hasan, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Yasir Arafat.
By Indian Sports News Network